Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering

January/February 2016
Vol. 52, No. 1
www.sampe.org

Resin Infusion/
Liquid Molding Technologies
 Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering
Columns
2 Presidents Message
5 Technical Directors Corner
15 Japan Report
17 North America Report
40 Perspectives

January/February 2016 Departments

Vol. 52, No. 1 6 SAMPE Journal Editorial Calender
www.sampe.org
13 CAMX 2016, Anaheim, CA
Features 14 Materials & Products
Page 7 16 Corporate Partners
Evolution in Composite 18 SAMPE China 2016
Injection Moulding Processes 30 SAMPE Europe Summit 16 Paris
for Wing Control Surfaces 32 Industry News
31 Europe News
33 SAMPE Membership Information
34 2016 Student Bridge Contest
35 SAMPE Long Beach 2016

Page 19 36 SAMPE Proceedings

Compression Resin Transfer 38 CAMX 2015 Review

Molding Simulation for Net Shape 39 CAMX Photo Gallery

Manufacturing of Composite 42 Welcome SAMPEs Newest Members

56 Advertisers Index
Structures for Automotive
58 Resource Center
Applications
63 CAMX 2016-Call for Abstracts
64 SAMPE Foundation
Award Winning Paper! 65 SAMPE Books & CDs Order Form
Page 44
66 Corporate Partner Program-
Development of a Process Become a Partner Today!
Window for Minimizing 68 Industry Events Calender
Volatile-Induced Surface
About the Cover
Porosity in the Resin SQRTM (Same Qualified Resin Transfer
Transfer Molding of a Molding) process developed by Radius En-
gineering Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT) used by
Benzoxazine/Epoxy Blend Sonaca S.A. (Gosselies, Belgium) to produce
these high quality resin infused wing sec-
tions, nose, trailing edge and skin panels as
Join the Conversation shown in the cover photos. Photos courtesy
What you have to say matters. of Sonaca.

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for factual information regarding all data and commentary.
SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016 1
Global Presidents Message

Takashi Ishikawa, PhD

Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
ishikawa@nuae.nagoya-u.ac.jp

Again in this issue, I would like to introduce my early days research activities related to advanced
composites conducted from the late 1970s to mid1980s. When I joined to National Aerospace
Laboratory of Japan (NAL, which is similar to NASA) in 1978, my assignment was to support the
development of a complete CFRP horizontal tail of the NAL research STOL aircraft named ASUKA.
This project was the first attempt to design and build carbon fiber/epoxy aerostructures conducted
within Japan. It was one of the earliest ambitious plans in the world at that time. One structural
feature was the sinusoidal corrugated web vertical wall for the main spars like the AV-8B aircraft
made in the USA. For achieving sufficient drapability to the spar mold, 8 Harness Satin prepreg of
carbon fiber/epoxy was employed as the web material throughout in this project. One day in late
1979, an engineer from MHI (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Co. Ltd, the main contractor of this project)
came to me and asked the reason why consolidated 1-ply 8 Harness Satin plate deformed so seriously,
almost changing into a cylinder. They fabricated single ply 8 Harness Satin plate material to evaluate
mechanical properties. At that time, the knowledge about composites made of textile reinforcements
was very limited, particularly for satin-weave type fabrics. I then created models of 8 Harness, 5
Harness and 4 Harness Satin fabrics with blue and white wool threads which my wife brought from
her home. Actually, we were newly married! Using the satin fabric models, I very easily found the
true reason of deformation, loss of the symmetry with respect to the mid-surface of single-ply satin
woven plates. As the next step, I conducted a full literature survey of various composites journals
and learned that I could open up an entire new field on the mechanics of fabric composites. Then, I
wrote my first paper about this topic entitled Anti-Symmetric Elastic Properties of Composite Plates
of Satin Weave Cloth for submission to Fibre Science and Technology. The paper was accepted and
published. At the same time, I was offered a chance to do research at University of Delaware, USA,
with Professor Tsu-Wei Chou. When I visited his office in October 1980, he allowed me to continue the
textile composite mechanics work I had previously started. Since then, we published several papers
of the early portions of textile composites mechanics with high citation indices.
When I went back to Japan after two years stay at the University of Delaware, the project reached
to its final stage of the strength test of the 1/2 scale model of a full CFRP horizontal tail. I joined the
test team and discovered another important phenomena concerning the compression strength of
composite structures. A description of its detail is skipped here. However, my lessons-learned that
new topics can be frequently discovered in the linkage between academia and practical challenges
could be broadened to many people within composites research fields. Although the fully developed
CFRP model would not be realized as the real flying empennage, the technology accumulated in NAL
and MHI was handed over to Japans original fighter aircrafts(so-called F2) main wings. Finally, it
consisted of the technology basis of for the Boeing 787 main wing production.

2 SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016

 SAMPE Global Officers 2015-2016
Global President, Takashi Ishikawa, PhD
Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering
Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University
ishikawa@nuae.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Global Executive Vice President, Dr. Luigi Gino Torre
Professor Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Perugia
luigi.torre@unipg.it
President of Europe Region, Arnt Offringa
Director Research and Development
Fokker Aerostructures BV
arnt.offringa@fokker.com
President of Japan Region, Professor Kazuro Kageyama
The University of Tokyo
kageyama@giso.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp
President of North America Region, Dr. Nick Gianaris
Vice President, Business Development, General Manager,
Materials Technology Division Thermacore
n.j.gianaris@thermacore.com
Global Immediate Past President, Anthony Vizzini, PhD, PE
Provost and Senior Vice President, Wichita State University
tony.vizzini@wichita.edu
Global Secretary, Gregg Balko, FASAE, CAE
CEO and Executive Director, SAMPE
gregg@sampe.org
4 SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016
SAMPE International Directors
CEO and Executive Director, Gregg Balko gregg@sampe.org
Technical Director, Dr. Scott Beckwith swbeckwith@aol.com
Editorial Contributors
Prof. David Fullwood, Brigham Young University
Dr. Rik Heslehurst, Abaris Training Resources
Prof. Jos Kenny, University of Perugia
Adrie Kwakernaak, Delft University of Technology
Dr. Tsuyoshi Ozaki, Composites R&D
Dr. Louis Pilato, Pilato Consulting
Prof. Alois Schlarb,
Institute fr Verbundwerkstoffe-Kaiserslautern
George Schmitt, AFRL-WPAFB
Prof. Nobuo Takeda, The University of Tokyo
Prof. Xiaosu Yi, Beijing Institute of Aero and Materials, AVIC
International Chapter Correspondents
Arnt Offringa, President of Europe Region
Director Research and Development, Fokker Aerostructures BV
Professor Kazuro Kageyama, President of Japan Region,
The University of Tokyo
Gary Turner, European Section Editor, Turner Research Corp.
SAMPE Journal Editorial Office
1161 Park View Drive, Suite 200, Covina, CA 91724-3759 USA
Phone: +1 626.331.0616 Fax: +1 626.332.8929
Publication Staff
Technical Editor, Dr. Scott Beckwith swbeckwith@aol.com
Production Manager, Jennifer Stephens jennifer@sampe.org
Advertising Representative, Patty Hunt sampeads@aol.com
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 A Note From the Technical Director

Dr. Scott W. Beckwith

SAMPE Journal Technical Editor
swbeckwith@aol.com

Improved Composites Design & Certification Approach

Aerospace and automotive engineers and technologists approach design,

manufacturing and certification much differently than automotive
engineers and technologists in how they view advanced composites
to develop structural products. We know the cost of developing new
materials, new design approaches and modifying manufacturing
processes to achieve technological developments is both tortuous and
extremely expensive. I have heard comments from the major commercial
aircraft manufacturers that designing and building a next generation
aircraft needs significant changes in the design and certification process if to be economically viable. The
cost of traditional design methods and material property/material allowables testing via the old pyramid
coupon-to-full-scale structure testing is cost-prohibitive.
That is particularly true for both thermoset and thermoplastic
composites. We see extensive developments in textiles, fabrics, spread
tow, thin ply and other new materials. Virtual testing methodologies
are a cost-effective option for verifying design material allowables
and inputs to design iterations. This illustrates one difference in the
automotive and aerospace communities. Automotive engineers embrace
virtual testing. Unfortunately, virtual testing still appears a long way off
in the aerospace market. Automotive engineers are pushed to create new designs annually for a larger number
of models.
Automation design methodology tends to look more at simulation methodologies. As a result design changes,
modifications, and materials incorporation are made a lot faster than one
sees in the aerospace world. The SAMPE Technical Excellence Committee
has specifically been tasked by the North America Board of Directors
to focus on the differences between aerospace and automotive in these
areas. I expect to see more focus in various conference and workshop
events that address virtual testing and computational modeling and
mechanics two areas that appear primed to see increased application
in the future.
SAMPE offered a computational modeling and science tutorial recently at the Dallas CAMX 2015 program
in October. Interest in this field of modeling and analysis has been growing steadily. It has been providing the
necessary continuity in understanding, and modeling, material behavior that we see at so many levels but have
failed to provide the complete set of tools necessary to improve design and analysis computational speeds for
reducing the cost of the design process itself. Engineers need simulation and computational software tools that
can improve and speed up the design process involving complex advanced composite material systems out on
the near term horizon. Given a number of perceived tools in these areas of testing and analysis methodology,
the structural certification process of new aerospace systems could become less cost-prohibitive and more
proactive.

SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016 5

SAMPE Journal Editorial Calendar
March/April 2016 November/December 2016
Testing/Inspection Tooling Technologies

May/June 2016 Industry Resource Guide

Core/Sandwich Material & Structures Place your marketing information in the directory
SAMPE Long Beach 2016/Long Beach, CA used all year as a constant resource worldwide

July/August 2016 January/February 2017

Out-of-Autoclave (OOA) Technology Reinforcement Technologies

September/October 2016 This editorial calendar is subject to change.

Thermoplastics
CAMX, The Composites & Advanced Materials
Expo, Anaheim, CA (Produced by ACMA & SAMPE)
For information on advertising: For information on submission of SAMPE Journal articles:
Patty Hunt 805.657.6571 E-Mail: sampeads@aol.com Dr. Scott Beckwith 801.262.8307
E-Mail: swbeckwith@aol.com
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July August 2015 September/October 2015 Industry Resource Guide 2016

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 Feature Article

Evolution in Composite Injection Moulding Processes

for Wing Control Surfaces
D. Gueuning and F. Mathieu
Sonaca S.A., Gosselies, Belgium

Abstract
Since 2010, Sonaca is engaged in R&D projects, with the support of Radius Engineering and Coexpair, aiming
to design, develop, manufacture and test monolithic CFRP flap structures made from the conventional 8552 resin
prepreg system and the newest SQRTM process (Same Qualified Resin Transfer Moulding) in order to assess several
additional benefits of this process over the conventional RTM process, amongst which the use of already qualified
tough prepreg materials and the ease combination with automatic deposition and preforming techniques of UD-
tapes. Following advantages were also considered during the initial trade-off analysis for the technology selection
of such wing control surface structure having very stringent requirements in terms of structural performance,
weight optimisation, aerodynamic quality and cost:
Strong control on thicknesses,
Strong control on the geometry (radii, plies conformity),
High surface and internal laminate qualities,
Robust process generating less scraps and non-conformities,
High level of part integration possible.

Introduction efficient in terms of part quality and robustness but the

Sonaca is producing today, in serial production, hybrid
slat structures on the A350 program. The concept
resulted from an important R&D project (Newslat)
running from 2003 till 2010 and consisting finally in the
assembly of a metallic nose skin with a composite rear
structure produced from a closed mould RTM process
based upon the RTM6 epoxy resin and carbon fabric/
carbon non-crimp fabric reinforcements, allowing very
high product dimensional characteristics together with
very good internal and surface quality. This concept
demonstrates now in serial production to be very
use of the dry fabrics and dry non-crimp fabrics do not
allow automation of the lay-up deposition.
In 2010, Sonaca decided to launch an extensive
research and development programme (Ecotac) to
develop the newest SQRTM (Same Qualified Resin
Transfer Molding) process for application on wing
control surface components and, followed in 2013,
by another programme with the final aim to bring the
technology up to TRL9 for use on flaps of an actual
regional aircraft project (Figure 1). Today, Sonaca can
be considered as the first European company having
introduced this advanced technology in production.

Figure 1. SQRTM TRL Road Map at Sonaca.

SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016 7
Feature Article
Figure 2. SQRTM process principle.
SQRTM process involves prepreg material cured in a
closed mold. The pressure inside the mold is applied
by a small quantity of prepreg resin (to be available
in bulk form) that is injected to fill the tool cavity
around the edges of the part and maintained until
the gel of the prepreg material. The process combines
advantages from prepreg materials (use of high tough
resins and ease combination with automatic deposition
and preforming techniques of UD-tapes) and RTM
process (dimensional and surface qualities). Following
advantages were also considered during the initial
trade-off analysis for the technology selection of such
wing control surface structure having very stringent
requirements in terms of structural performance,
weight optimisation, aerodynamic quality and cost:
Strong control on thicknesses,
Strong control on the geometry (radii, plies fabric and AS4 UD-tape carbon reinforcements as well
conformity),
High surface quality,
Figure 3.
SQRTM flap demonstrator.
Figure 4. SQRTM mold cross-section.
8 SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016
Robust process generating less scraps, less
non conformities and repairs,
High level of part integration possible,
Faster NDT inspection (less scatter at the part
surface due to the better surface roughness),
Automation possible with the use of UD
reinforcements (AFP or ATL) and it can be
pushed further than autoclave (no vacuum bag,
more repeatable process).
The main injection/curing steps are (Figure 2):
Putting the resin inside the injector, degassing and
heating it to the specified resin injection temperature,
Applying vacuum to the mold having the prepreg lay-
up placed inside,
Heating-up the tool to the specified injection
temperature,
Opening the injection line and adjusting injection
pressure or resin flow,
Shutting-off vacuum port valves on tool when resin
appears,
Ramping tool temperature to the curing temperature,
Shutting-off the resin injection,
Holding the curing temperature/time.
SQRTM Composite Flap R&D Project
SQRTM Flap Demonstrator Part and Tool Concepts
The demonstrator (Figure 3) has been designed
to be composed of only four main elements: a lower
skin with an integrated front spar, an upper skin with
an integrated rear spar, a D-nose and a trailing edge.
Selected raw material was 8552 resin with AGP193
as expanded copper foil 3 CU 7-125 on the outer surface
of the skins, D-nose and trailing edge. Fabric material
 Feature Article

Figure 5.
Typical SQRTM curing cycle.

was chosen for the skins while tape has been used for press. The parts were injected with 8552 resin and
the co-cured stringers. cured with the cycle shown in Figure 5.
The tool was designed to be able to manufacture the After cooling and de-moulding, a visual inspection
four composite parts in one single mould/injection. A of the cured parts revealed a really exceptional part
cross-section of the tool is showed Figure 4. quality as shown by Figures 6a through 6d.
Dimensional inspection was performed based upon
Demonstrator Manufacturing Results ultrasonic measurements and micrographics. Over
After ply cutting-off and laying-up of the pre-formed more than 150 thickness control points selected, no
plies, the mandrels were positioned on the tool and the value was found out of the allowed +/-8% tolerance
mould was closed before its installation in the SQRTM around the nominal thickness.
Furthermore, the micrographic cuts analysis has
confirmed that the demonstrators
presented a very good level of
internal quality (skin, stringers,
spar and joggle areas) as shown in
Figures 7a through 7d:
No delamination,
Good compaction of the plies (even
at difficult areas such as radius in
spars, stringers, joggles, )
Good filling of the stringers with
the noodle fillers,
Figure 6a. Lower skin quality. Figure 6b. Upper skin quality. Good filling of the joggles with the
fillers,
Thicknesses compliant with the
requirements,
Spar radii and stringers radii
compliant with the requirements,
Figure 6d. No internal ply waviness.
Trailing edge quality. The C-scan US NDT reports have
confirmed the fully satisfactory
internal quality of the produced
parts for what concerns porosity
and inclusion.
Figure 6c. D-nose quality.
SAMPE Journal, Volume 52, No. 1, January/February 2016 9